Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/M006247/1
Field techniques for surveying freshwater macroorganisms and their habitats: integrating field surveys, taxonomic skills, and hydrochemistry
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr JMR Hughes, University of Oxford, Continuing Education
- Grant held at:
- University of Oxford, Continuing Education
- Science Area:
- Freshwater
- Overall Classification:
- Freshwater
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Systematics & Taxonomy
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Water Quality
- Survey & Monitoring
- Abstract:
- The proposed 5 day postgraduate and professional training course in field techniques for surveying freshwater macroorganisms and their habitats will provide integrated, multidisciplinary training in field survey techniques, sampling strategies and protocols, taxonomy, freshwater habitat-specific data analysis and evaluation. Students will be equipped with the core techniques to answer a range of research questions and hypotheses in a range of freshwater habitats including ponds, rivers and wetlands. Field survey techniques will be utilised in the field for a variety of macroorganisms: these include aquatic macroinvertebrates (e.g. water beetles, dragonfly larvae, water snails and leeches), macrophytes (large water plants e.g. sedges, pondweed, duckweed), amphibians (e.g. frogs, toads and newts), freshwater fish and crayfish (native and nonnative). In all cases, native and non-native freshwater macroorganisms will be surveyed, identified and evaluated. Hydrology and water chemistry techniques will also be learnt in order to quantify and evaluate the physical environment inhabited by freshwater organisms (e.g. volume and variability of water, acidity and alkalinity, total nutrient load of the water, phosphorus, nitrate). The integration of the physical, chemical and biological interrelationships in freshwater ecology will be a key aspect of the course. Uniqueness The high tutor to student ratio will ensure there is the combined expertise to cover all aspects of freshwater field investigations from data collection through to analysis, and provide individual advice and discussion on students' own specimens and data. The five tutors have previously taught or researched with the Academic director on a number of programmes including the Marley Fen Research Project at Wytham, the Postgraduate Certificate in Ecological Survey Techniques at Oxford University, and previous NERC funded PPSDA courses at Oxford University. The course builds on the freshwater ecology component taught by the Academic Director on the MSc in Water, Science, Policy & Management at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment. The tutor team will provide an outstanding multidisciplinary forum for students to progress their own studies, gain confidence in applying and evaluating techniques, and receive training based on leading-edge research. The course will be mostly situated in the University of Oxford's John Krebs Field Laboratory at the globally famous Wytham Woods, a unique site west of Oxford, famous for its long term ecological monitoring records on birds, mammals and plants. Wytham is additionally part of the international Environmental Change Network and hosts a Smithsonian long-term monitoring plot. Students will have access to all meteorological and surface water data, and relevant plant monitoring data including data from Marley Fen. Additionally, parts of the course will be hosted by the world-leading Oxford University Herbarium and Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where curators will focus on the taxonomy and preservation of freshwater specimens. Impact With freshwater ecosystem services and associated water resources at risk globally from changing water cycles, pollution and over exploitation, this short course will seek to fill a well identified gap in skills provision needed to survey and monitor freshwaters. The techniques learnt will enable students to contribute, via their research or employment, to the conservation, management and water security of freshwater habitats and associated ecological functions. The integrated survey, taxonomy and hydrochemistry research skills the students will develop are highly transferable. They can be used in the UK or overseas, and are valued by academia, consultancies, NGO's and industrial employers across the sector.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/M006247/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Completion
- Scheme:
- Doctoral Training
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Advanced Training
This training grant award has a total value of £36,845
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs |
|---|
| £36,845 |
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